This invention relates to a laminated, highly sorbent, active carbon fabric which is useful in clothing, face masks, and the like for protecting personnel against toxic chemical vapors.
Much effort has been directed in recent years to the development of fibers and fabrics to protect industrial and laboratory workers as well as firefighters, police and military personnel against the sorption of toxic chemical vapors to which they may be exposed in their normal working conditions or during special situations such as a gas attack during war. One of the more important considerations in the development of clothing for such purposes is that the heat load imposed on the wearer of the clothing be kept as low as possible. Hence, garment fabric systems that will breathe and have low levels of thermal insulation as well as sorb toxic chemical vapors are very important. Another desirable feature would be to isolate active carbon from sweat because the sorption capacity for other chemicals is reduced when sweat is sorbed.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a laminated, highly sorbent, active carbon fabric that will be permeable to moisture vapor, resistant to sweat penetration and have low levels of thermal insulation while being capable of sorbing substantial amounts of toxic chemical vapors and, therefore, of preventing such chemical vapors from penetrating through clothing made of such fabric to the skin of wearers of such clothing.
Another object of the invention is to provide a process for making a highly sorbent, active carbon fabric having characteristics such as those described in the preceding paragraph.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention.